Web protests, White House and GOP rebellion put SOPA on life support

Several Senate Republicans drafted a letter to Reid last week asking him to scuttle his plan to hold a test vote Jan. 24. While Reid rejected that request, the White House piled on over the weekend with a statement expressing concerns with the direction of the bill.

“We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” three administration officials wrote online.

“It was a no-brainer vote until the White House decided to blow it up,” said one Senate Democratic chief of staff.

Several sources said they expect that the Wednesday blackout will increase pressure on senators to move away from a bill that has had broad bipartisan support

The conservative Heritage Action sent out a “key vote” alert Tuesday, urging lawmakers to vote against the two versions of the bill.

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: Zack Hale @ 01/18/2012 11:25 AM
CORRECTION: Sen. Ben Cardin’s position on the PROTECT IP Act was misstated in an earlier version of this article. He is still a co-sponsor even though he now opposes the bill as currently written.